The Chrysanthemum

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865 edition. Excerpt: ... THE CHRYSANTHEMUM, CHAPTER I. HISTORY. The Chrysanthemum family is not only very extensive, but widely scattered over the four quarters of the globe. Such species as C. absinthiifolium and C. arcticum are found in the icy regions of Siberia and Kamtchatka, while others, C. carinatum and C. paludosum, inhabit the burning plains of Barbary. In the more temperate regions many interesting species are met with; our own country can boast of two--C. leucanthemum (white), and C. segetum (yellow); the former is the well-known May flower or Ox-eye daisy, which brightens our road-sides and meadows with its snowwhite flowers in early summer; the other, C. segetum, is frequently seen in our ploughed fields, and known by the more common name of yellow ox-eye daisy or cornmarigold. One of the species, C. coronarium, is said to be used for culinary purposes in China. It is not, however, to any of these that attention will be drawn, but to the Japanese or Chinese Chrysanthemum described by botanists under so many various names, such as--B s Kikf, Kikku in China, Kychonophane in Japan, Tsjetto pu in Malabar. This species is very far superior, in a floricultural point of view, to any of the others, for by perseverance and skill its original colour and form have not only been greatly diversified, but brought to a state of perfection to which none of the others have attained, so much so that it is now universally acknowledged to be the most beautiful and attractive winter flowering plant we possess. The Chrysanthemum of 1865 differs so widely from the Chrysanthemum of 1764 (the date of its first introduction into England), that few persons would recognise it as the same flower, for at that time all, or nearly so, of the varieties were semi-double, with...